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Pennsylvania and Maryland and Delaware I would bet have some Bible Belt influences to them given how close they are to Virginia and West Virginia.
SW Pennsylvania is heavily Catholic, and most of the Protestants are Presbyterians due to Scotch-Irish settlers. Maryland was settled by Catholics; a boyfriend of mine (Catholic) called it a "Catholic refugee camp"; Delaware also is heavily Catholic. S Central Pa is Protestant, but not so much Baptist (see Louisville Slugger's map).
This is a little off topic, but I was thinking about something the other day with regards to speech patterns. I have a friend who lives in Omaha, NE and was listening to how he was talking. I suddenly realized that Omaha is at the southwest edge of the northern cities shift accent regional influence zone. Their was some of the Northern Plains/Upper Midwest influence along with a little Great Lakes influence. Omaha along with most areas of Iowa are also included in the northern cities shift accent region.
My DH is from Omaha, both his parents were/are from near there. Only his mom has the distinctive northern cities shift accent. DH actually says a few things that sound a little southern (shart for short, etc). So its a mixed bag. The Iowans I know either have distinctive N. cities shift or drift, or rather normal accents. Back to topic; I don't think the 'Bible Belt' necessarily means southern. I think it means an area of the country that is very religious. That includes most of the midwest. My cousin from Wisconsin used to say she lived in the Bible Belt.
My DH is from Omaha, both his parents were/are from near there. Only his mom has the distinctive northern cities shift accent. DH actually says a few things that sound a little southern (shart for short, etc). So its a mixed bag. The Iowans I know either have distinctive N. cities shift or drift, or rather normal accents. Back to topic; I don't think the 'Bible Belt' necessarily means southern. I think it means an area of the country that is very religious. That includes most of the midwest. My cousin from Wisconsin used to say she lived in the Bible Belt.
What is with the "shart" being a Southern thing all of a sudden? It is something commonly pronounced actually by people from the Lower Midwest (below the Great Lakes). The Upper South may use it to but it's random...I've heard both "shawt" and "shart" used. Trust me, "shart" is not uniformly found throughout the South, and it is actually a term rather common to the Lower Midwest as well,in fact possibly more-so than the South, it is not classifiable as Southern IMO. THe South, especially the Deep South, tends to favor "shawt" I've noticed over "shart." Strangely enough, so does the Northeast, so I guess you cannot definitively pin words ending in "ort" to any single region in the country. dialect patterns unique to the south alone are the phrases "y'all," "I'm fixin' " fire being pronounced like "fah-err", those are pronunciations shared by the south and the South alone. In fact I've found it to be the case more often than not that people who pronounce short like "shart" have fairly flat accents, not Southern ones. The Deep South and New England pronounce short the same way. Any fancy pronunciation of "short" you can't really classify as belonging strictly to the Midwest or South, but rather I'd just say to pretty much most of the Eastern half of the United States as well as obviously to other countries besides the U.S.
To my ears, the southern "twangs" sound more midwestern or even yankee to me, than the upper crust southern accents of Charleston, Richmond, or Savannah. The influence being maybe the Scotch-Irish had more to do with upland Southern speech and the Old Brits were Tidewater South.
But I don't know. A lot of people in the midwest and north seem way too heavy on their "r" vowel. Something a lot of people in my area just don't do. "Carrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"
ENTIRLEY IN BIBLE BELT:
Virginia
Kentucky
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Alabama
Mississippi
Arkansas
Missouri
Tennesee
Oklahoma
Kansas
Nebraska
South Dakota
North Dakota
PARTIALLY IN BIBLE BELT:
Maryland (Southern and Eastern MD only)
Delaware (South of I-95)
West Virginia (Not the northern panhandle)
Ohio (Southern Areas)
Indiana (Southern areas)
Illinois (Southern areas)
Iowa (Southern and Western areas)
Florida (Not South of Orlando)
Texas (West Texas not included)
Revised Version:
ENTIRELY IN BIBLE BELT:
Kentucky
South Carolina
Alabama
Mississippi
Arkansas
Missouri
Tennessee
Oklahoma
Kansas
Nebraska
South Dakota
North Dakota
PARTIALLY IN BIBLE BELT:
Maryland (Southern and Eastern MD only)
Delaware (South of I-95)
North Carolina (The Raleigh/Durham and Charlotte areas to a lesser extent)
West Virginia (Not the northern panhandle)
Pennsylvania (Central area)
Ohio (Southern Areas)
Indiana (Southern areas)
Illinois (Southern areas)
Iowa (Southern and Western areas)
Florida (Not South of Orlando)
Texas (West Texas not included)
Georgia (Not Atlanta)
Louisiana (not New Orleans)
Virginia (Not Northern Virginia/DC Suburbs)
What is with the "shart" being a Southern thing all of a sudden? It is something commonly pronounced actually by people from the Lower Midwest (below the Great Lakes). The Upper South may use it to but it's random...I've heard both "shawt" and "shart" used. Trust me, "shart" is not uniformly found throughout the South, and it is actually a term rather common to the Lower Midwest as well,in fact possibly more-so than the South, it is not classifiable as Southern IMO. THe South, especially the Deep South, tends to favor "shawt" I've noticed over "shart." Strangely enough, so does the Northeast, so I guess you cannot definitively pin words ending in "ort" to any single region in the country. dialect patterns unique to the south alone are the phrases "y'all," "I'm fixin' " fire being pronounced like "fah-err", those are pronunciations shared by the south and the South alone. In fact I've found it to be the case more often than not that people who pronounce short like "shart" have fairly flat accents, not Southern ones. The Deep South and New England pronounce short the same way. Any fancy pronunciation of "short" you can't really classify as belonging strictly to the Midwest or South, but rather I'd just say to pretty much most of the Eastern half of the United States as well as obviously to other countries besides the U.S.
I am from the northeast, Pittsburgh, to be exact, and we do not say "shart" or "shawt", we say "short". Texans, at least some of them, also say "shart".
I am from the northeast, Pittsburgh, to be exact, and we do not say "shart" or "shawt", we say "short". Texans, at least some of them, also say "shart".
Correction. I meant to say New England. And THey do pronounce it like that, there is no getting around that one. New Yorkers also say short like "shawt" or "showt." Bostonians pronounce short like "shawt," at least that is the traditional accent of New England. If Texans say it, so what...it is far from strictly a Southern pronunciation...most Texans also have relatively flat accents compared to the rest of the South anyway, though they their accents in no way resemble the Midwest. That should be worth noting. This is absolutely the wrong word to try and pin to a single region. Period. There is pronouncing a few terms like a region, then there is actually talking like that region. Conclusion? If it doesn't quack like a duck, it isn't one.
Revised Version:
ENTIRELY IN BIBLE BELT:
Kentucky
South Carolina
Alabama
Mississippi
Arkansas
Missouri
Tennessee
Oklahoma
Kansas
Nebraska
South Dakota
North Dakota
PARTIALLY IN BIBLE BELT:
Maryland (Southern and Eastern MD only)
Delaware (South of I-95)
North Carolina (The Raleigh/Durham and Charlotte areas to a lesser extent)
West Virginia (Not the northern panhandle)
Pennsylvania (Central area)
Ohio (Southern Areas)
Indiana (Southern areas)
Illinois (Southern areas)
Iowa (Southern and Western areas)
Florida (Not South of Orlando)
Texas (West Texas not included)
Georgia (Not Atlanta)
Louisiana (not New Orleans)
Virginia (Not Northern Virginia/DC Suburbs)
That actually is the correct list that I remember seeing somewhere earlier. That is correct if I recall. Although I don't believe for a minute that St. Louis and Kansas City are part of the Bible Belt. I could buy Missouri outside of STL and KC. KC and STL are definitely not Bible Belt cities.
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